, 1887-09-14

Jb "a NS0AoS1 0SSNN S'SN6O
performance.
It being yet. the rolling season, at the time
OF his return to the States, the writer saw no
cultlvating work in progress. Great care in
the lands preparation for planting and in the
selection of seed is universally agreed, how.
ever, to be exercised, as necessary to q pro-
ftable and maximum succession of stubble
crops.
AS the lands vary from undulating to billy,
being also mainly porous in texture, no ditch
es whatever were encountered. Their ab-
sence permits the free use of steam plows,
although bull teams yet perform nearly all of
this labor; and admits, beside, which is'of
more present consequence there, of thorough
cross blowing. Wooden plows are yet in
general use among the lower class of small
farmers, such indeed as found employment
among ancient, Oriental peoples, and alto
4gether similar to those still met with, also,
upon the sugar estates of Mexico and in the
far East. A forked tree-branch, merely,
one portion of which is hewed into the rude
semblance of 8 shear, minus mould board,
fire hardened or iron shod; the other serving
as a sole handle for the implements guidance.
Commercial fertilizers are all but unknown,
as the result of an almost prohibitory custom
tax. rather than from any lack of apprecia-
ton. It has been found cheaper to open up
new lands, when present, than to resusci-
tate the old by the use of these. 1t Is beIlev-
ed that not beyond one twentieth part OF the
available sugar lands of the Island have ever
been occupied for cane growing. The absence
of cane in the near vicinity of many factories
shows how these nave been first wllfully ex-
hausted and afterwards unwillingly abandon
ca. A degree of solicitude is evlnced to con-
serve those by-products incident to the bust
ness which we are serviceable as fertilizers,
however, on the more intelligently conduct
ed estates, such as it would be most advan-
tageous for ourselves to initiate.
Large pits are commonly provided, into
which the excreta of their animals, the hne
bagasse sweepings from about their MUS,
the filter press cake or Scums, the refuse line
from defecation, the ashes from their fur
naces and the molasses or d~istillery slops,
as the case may be, are carefully composted
and fermented. This procedure returns to
the land, in at least semi-available form,
we'll nigh all the mineral ingredients taken
from it, particularly so since their fires with
natural draft, unlike our own under power
blast, fail of the intensity necessary to a fu-
sion of the silica with the alkalies present IN
the bagasse and, with this result, the forma-
ton of highly insoluble salts. The lime, too
fixes a large percentage Of ammonia; ammo
MIA and humus being, further, always proUd'
ed by the surprising blanket of tops and trash
left upon the ground at the crops removal,
which last is never d~esignedly burned for
most excellent reasons.
The most productive and enduring sane
soils are those, probably, about Manzanlllo
and Santiago de Cuba, lime c~arbonates and
suIphates and magnesia. however, abound
ing everywhere; with a long season in great
measure obviating the necessity which we
experience in Louisiana for maturing lnhu'
ence of the posphates. The finest machine
nv is, in general, that found about Man
tanzas, the Donaldsonville of Cuba, and
the most extensive operations those IN
questionably met with about Clentuegos:
Taken on the mean, whether In the held
or upon the carrier, the a n seen was not ad-
judged to be superior in appearance to our
own plant crops in any regard, although car.
rying a decidedly higher sugar content. IL
having been somewhat dwarfed this particu-
lar season, as universally claimed by exces-
sive drouth. Eighteen tons all around, LOT
good, bad, and Indifferent, from plant to hnal
stubble was stated as being no doubt mea'
surably above the Islands average per acre.
Ratoons are frequently retained on new
lands as long as twenty years, with nfteen
years a more probable averages; while an
avowed tendency to reduce even the latter ID
evinced, as higher wage rates rob inferior
crons of nroft. Soils which have passed this